Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia weighs heavy on WNBA as new season starts

Every team begins its season hoping to win the championship, but that goal may appear inconsequential in this year’s WNBA when one of the league’s leading players, Brittney Griner, continues to languish in a Russian jail.

WNBA players are attempting to remain focused on the court, while worrying about Griner’s condition and any news of a potential release after she was detained over allegations she brought cannabis into Russia.

Courtney Vandersloot, a guard for the Chicago Sky, was Griner’s teammate in Russia at UMMC Ekaterinburg and learned about her detainment during a team meeting before the country invaded Ukraine in February.

“We had a team meeting with our GM, he told us that she had been picked up at the airport,” Vandersloot said at the Sky’s media day on this week. “I can’t put into words that moment learning that. How we felt for Brittney and how scared we were for Brittney. We are hoping that she’s OK mentally and physically. Hoping that she’s being taken care of. We have the same agent so I’ve been able to stay a little bit in the know. She has the right people working for her. They’re doing everything they can to get her home.”

Related: Brittney Griner told me her fear of being alone and forgotten. Don’t let it come true

Griner, a double-Olympic champion, faces 10 years in jail if she is convicted by a Russian court. But hopeful news emerged this week when the Biden administration determined that Griner is “being wrongfully detained”. US officials have now shifted Griner’s case to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs which will focus on negotiating her release. The White House’s ruling came one week after the highly-publicized release of Trevor Reed, a US citizen who had been